One of my favorite things to do is to just hang out with dear friends. We don’t get to do this as often as we want, since everyone is “growing up” and doing adult things like working 40 to 60 hours a week. But, it seems like when we all need it the most, everyone’s schedules open up and we’re able to have some fun.
The best part about spending time with my buddies is that my friends are now hubby’s friends too. He’s thanked me a few times for having good taste in friends, and for being so selective with who I want to spend my time with. Because of this, he sees them as great people to hang with as well. Even the husbands of my friends are friends with my Hubby. They hang out together every once in a while without the wives are we are all for it. The second best part is that all of my friends understand that sometimes it about the quality, not the quantity. We do love to go out every once in a while to restaurants, bowling alleys, comedy or night clubs, but it’s becoming once in a blue moon. Our new favorite thing to do is to rotate the times we spend at one another’s abode. We call it “app nights” and we each bring an appetizer and maybe our favorite adult beverages. We pick a game to play, whether it’s a board game, card game, or even a Wii game(our favorite) and we chill out and enjoy the company.
For people our age, I see this as an oddity but a blessing. Usually, going out and spending all types of money is what’s expected during this season of life, and yes I do have a group of friends that love to do just that, but it’s nice to have a few buddies that “get it” when you explain how much more fun it is to just relax and catch up. Another plus for our particular family is that these set of friends, who don’t have any kids of their own, constantly ask for us to bring along our children. It’s a wonderful surprise when we decide to get together and they make a point of telling us not to try to find a babysitter. Sometimes we do pass off the kiddos to the grandparents if we do need a bit of adult time, but it’s so appreciated that their “aunts and uncles” miss them just about as much as they miss us.
I’ve had friends come and go quite a few times but this group has stuck around the longest. It must be the “birds of a feather” scenario.
Do you have a friend or two that understand, or better yet appreciate, your frugality? Are they frugal as well? Do you try to keep your get-togethers low-key and inexpensive?
Oh absolutely! My BFF is my financial inspiration. I’ve got another set of friends who are facing a tough time financially. It’s nice that we don’t have to spend a lot to have the priceless companionship of friends. Most of my buddies would much rather stay in and entertain than meet out to eat and drink.
Invest is your friends and keep the connection going while you are young — it’s so easy for groups and friends to drift apart.
I prefer to stay at home with friends or hang out in one of the local parks instead of pricey restaurants (they are nice but not for “hanging out”); and since I love to cook the choice is usually easy 🙂 We do keep it low key and inexpensive but once in a while we do cheese/fruit/wine tasting that are a bit more expensive but also quite a bit of fun 🙂
Wish I had friends like that. Most, if not all, LOVE to go out and spend up their money. NOT me, I’m all about the frugality of it 🙁
Sadly, no. My parents are frugal, and so are my boyfriend and I. After college, we really only have 2 friends within socializing distance, unfortunately. And they are so NOT frugal. We visited them last weekend, and on a whim, he wanted to bake cookies. So we went to ShopRite, and he dumped $50 on baking supplies with no consideration for sale prices or anything. It was shocking to me.
My friends are people I meet when I help others, they seem to get it about it is not about themselves, how much they can consume and spend and how this hair product, shi shi food out and all that other baloney isn’t helping people in the worst depression since 1929..Oh, we live where one can hike and go to free parks and take bus rides reasonably to see the beauty of the areas we like to do that my hubby and myself..Friends are people who have similar values and my friends are from my early childhood second and third grades all baby boomers with kids outta the house, parents passed to the Lord and maybe they lost their hubby or wife, we get together at a beach place and talk to the wee hours of the mornings, no phones, this and that and appreciate we are still on this terrestrial and when the holidays come we get togther and talk and laugh some more what could a person ask for in this life? not much, friends are important a lot..cia mjs